Machinations
by Betty BOKOR
Summary: Mary/Marshall. Marshall is about to take a huge step that would change his life completely. Mary is not ready to acknowledge she does not want him to do it, but she will soon have to make a decision about it.
1. Chapter 1

**Machinations **by Betty Bokor  
Mary/Marshall. Marshall surprises everyone with his new plans and Mary has to learn to live with his decisions.  
Spoilers: All episodes, including Second Season Finale.  
Disclaimer: The In Plain Sight original characters belong to USA Network and Universal Media Studios (UMS). This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

**Machinations**

******Chapter 1**

The day my father left, I learned a new meaning for the word _loss_. Losing him implied so much more than the lack of his physical presence or his fatherly comfort. It meant waking up and leaving childhood and innocence behind. In the years that followed, there was little I could keep. Loss became a daily event.

Ever since then, I have carefully avoided putting myself in the position of losing something –_someone_– else. I know I cannot stop death, but, _hell_ if I will care about anyone enough to feel the loss when they are gone. These days, my mother and my sister are –as when he left– my only solid attachments. After Raphael, men –like Faber, for example– don't hold real meaning, beyond whatever physical satisfaction I can get from them. Of course I'm afraid of losing Stan, especially since he's the best surrogate for my father I've met until now, but, most of the time, he's safely ensconced between the walls of our office.

Now, Marshall… Marshall, that's another story.

* * *

Mary looked at her watch one more time. She tried searching for something in her desk drawers and then typed a few words on the document she had still open on her computer, but her thoughts went predictably back to Marshall. He was not there yet. He had said he would be there by nine and, though it was only a quarter to nine now, she somehow felt uneasy about it.

Marshall never took personal days, much less a week.

Mary could feel something had changed in their relationship right since she had come back from Mexico. He had not said anything and their daily interaction seemed to be the same as before, but she could feel a subtle difference and it was not a positive one. Every single exchange between them was now related to work and whenever she tried to get into a more personal area, Marshall delicately moved the conversation back to the safe waters of witness protection. It was as if he did not want to know about her life and that was hard for her to take from her best friend. She was still interested in_ his _life… Right?

The truth was he had never talked much about his own life. Or she had not really asked. Or listened…

Now, he was taking time off. That was something almost unheard of before.

Why did he need to help a friend move to Albuquerque? She was his only friend; he had said so.

Who was this friend about whom he had never talked before? He had not even said his name… or hers.

Besides, who moved to Albuquerque these days?

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she remembered Marshall spewing data about the city. The sixth fastest growing city in America… Almost one million inhabitants in the metropolitan area… Near half the population of New Mexico in it…

Okay. That was not a good argument. It seemed many people were moving to Albuquerque lately, but, still, _who_ was this friend?

She felt the uneasiness grow stronger.

Ten to nine.

She wondered why it bothered her so much that Marshall took care of someone else. Mary _had_ a life beyond the office and Marshall should have one, too. She had been engaged to Raph for quite a while and she probably would have married him if his aunt had not come for a visit and opened his eyes to what Mary already knew but refused to acknowledge. Nevertheless, that did not mean that she had abandoned the idea of settling down. Being shot while protecting Francesca had been a wake-up call. She had realized that if she had died that day, there would have only been accomplishments in her professional life and most of those would have been kept secret. She had suddenly seen the virtues of having a family and, though it scared her deeply, she had given it some thought. And then Norah had come and changed every one of her plans.

Five to nine.

On the other hand, she knew Marshall dated now and then and that had never been an issue. She had encouraged him to talk about his dates and she had been there for him when they had not worked out well.

Now that she thought about it, she usually believed his dates would not lead to anything else. It was hard to date when you had to hide most of the details of your job —of what you did everyday all day long— to a person who was trying to get to know you. It was easier to give up than to get caught in a lie.

Marshall should have understood why she had told Raph about her job. It got them closer…

That was a lie. Ever since he had found out about WitSec, Raph had been upset about it.

In any case, Marshall was not dating anyone lately and now he was just helping a friend. Nothing to worry about.

Nine o'clock.

As if on cue, she heard the elevator reaching the floor and sighed with relief. He was back.

Marshall entered the office with a wide smile and an air of contentment that made Mary get a smile of her own. He looked rested, happier than when he had left a week before.

After leaving his coat and some small boxes on his desk, he turned around and said in a loud voice, "Gather 'round, people. Gather 'round… I have news!"

His smile was even brighter —if that was possible— and he was signaling them with his hand to get close to him.

Stan came out of his office, intrigued, and Mary and Delia followed him towards where Marshall was standing. He turned to his desk and picked up the boxes.

"First of all, a few souvenirs from my recent journey to Washington, D.C.; chocolates for you," he said as he handed one box to Mary and one to Delia, "and a good bottle of Portuguese port for the boss."

As she opened her chocolates, Mary looked at Stan, "Care to switch?"

Stan smiled as he shook his head.

"Had to try at least," Mary commented.

Stan thanked Marshall and then asked, "So what's the news?"

Marshall took a deep breath and smiled again, "I'm getting married, folks," he said enthusiastically as he lifted his left hand and showed a simple gold wedding ring on his finger.

"You got married?" Mary asked in disbelief.

"No, Mar… I said I'm _getting married_," Marshall corrected her.

"But you're wearing the ring already," she countered.

He shrugged. "We had them; Leslie liked the idea of not being the only one wearing the ring."

"Leslie…" Mary repeated very softly, but her voice was drowned by Stan's congratulating Marshall. Delia joined him soon.

"This is a surprise, boy, but it looks like it's making you very happy, so, congratulations!" Stan said as he shook Marshall's hand. "I just can't believe you kept it a secret."

"Not really," Marshall replied. "It was a sudden decision, but we think it'll work just fine."

"So, when are we meeting the bride?" Stan asked.

"Well, we can check the calendar for this week, but maybe we can do dinner on Wednesday. Leslie really wants to meet all of you." He looked at Mary, who had not moved from her spot and had a polite smile on her face. "I've told her a lot about you."

Mary nodded slowly and walked to him to hug him. "Congratulations, Marshall," she said softly. "I'm very happy for you."

"We have to plan a celebration," Delia said as she started walking to her desk.

Stan walked to his office and checked his calendar. "Wednesday… yeah, it looks like we could do it on Wednesday if nothing comes up…" he confirmed from his desk. "But," he walked back out and looked at Marshall, "there's a pile of stuff for you to do today, if the bliss of the impending nuptials allows you to go back to work."

"Yes, boss," Marshall replied with the same happy smile and started grabbing folders from his desk.

Mary was still standing in the middle of the room, holding her chocolates, looking at him.

Marshall raised his head and smiled questioningly at her. He was expecting something from her, but he was not sure what. Mockery, maybe sarcasm, even anger… Anything but silence.

She noticed he was looking at her and nodded her head. "Good... good." She walked to her desk and looked at her computer without really seeing what was on the screen.

During the rest of the morning, Mary glanced at Marshall many times, half expecting him to be looking at her, but it never happened. He earnestly worked on updating his files and taking care of his witnesses. Before leaving at midday to visit some of them, he smiled at her and Mary felt he seemed somehow relieved, free of some heavy invisible burden.

She had really wanted to ask about his fiancée, but she had not been able to bring herself to do it. She would wait until Wednesday and judge for herself. If he wanted to share something before that, she would welcome it, but she could not ask. Stan had tried and Marshall had avoided giving a straight answer, joking about how they needed to meet Leslie to truly understand why he had decided to marry her.

When she finally went home, she was feeling as if Marshall's indiscernible burden had fallen over her own shoulders.


	2. Chapter 2

**Machinations **by Betty Bokor  
Mary/Marshall. Marshall surprises everyone with his new plans and Mary has to learn to live with his decisions.  
Spoilers: All episodes, including Second Season Finale.  
Disclaimer: The In Plain Sight original characters belong to USA Network and Universal Media Studios (UMS). This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

**Machinations**

******Chapter 2**

That night, Leslie sat in bed watching Marshall sleep. She was not sure what had possessed her when she had asked him to marry her, but she was not sorry she had done it. There were two possible outcomes and neither of them worried her.

If they ended up getting married in two weeks, she would spend the rest of her life by the side of the only man she had felt attracted to since the death of her husband. Disappearance, not death. She still could not think of David as dead; he was _missing in action_. Six years ago she had firmly believed he would be found and he would be back with her one day, but it got harder every day to keep that kind of hope.

She had met Marshall three years after David's disappearance —right around the time when she had been informed she could initiate the process to declare him dead— and Marshall had been a source of strength she had not been expecting.

They had worked together for ten days –when transferring one of his witnesses into her care had become a complicated game of cat and mouse with the people trying to kill the witness– and they had bonded in ways she had not anticipated. After the witness had been safely relocated, Marshall had stayed an extra weekend just to be with her. Their jobs had made it impossible to develop a relationship beyond that, but now she was not in WitSec anymore and it could work out.

Then, there was the possibility that Mary would come to her senses and stop Marshall from marrying her. When he had started talking about his partner a week ago, Leslie had immediately realized he was crazy in love with Mary. She had also noticed how much it hurt him that Mary did not love him back.

Leslie could not fathom that Mary would know Marshall, really _know_ Marshall, as a partner should after more than seven years together, and not love him. She theorized that either she was not very bright —and Marshall would disagree with this— or she loved him and she did not want or she could not acknowledge it.

It had to be the latter. That was why the whole idea had come to her. The possibility of losing Marshall had to force Mary to face those feelings. If she did not have any, then Leslie would marry him and try to make him as happy as David had made her. He was such a good man and he deserved to enjoy as much joy as she had been given while she was married. Leslie somehow felt she had to pass on what she had gotten.

She knew she already had strong feelings for him and it would not take much to make them grow. Besides, since accepting her proposal, Marshall seemed completely at peace with the idea. It was as if moving on from Mary had given him a sense of serenity he did not have before. The few days they had spent together since her move to Albuquerque had proven Leslie that he was ready to let the dream go to start dealing with reality, a reality that also made him happy.

She gently caressed Marshall's face and slid in bed next to him.

Yes, it would be okay. The goal was to make him happy. She was giving Mary two weeks to step up and take care of it, but she was more than willing to make it happen herself.

She turned off the light and was soon asleep.

* * *

Mary turned in bed one more time and looked at the clock.

She could not sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she ended up imagining Marshall in bed with someone else. She could not make her mind up about an image of Leslie, but she always had her looking gorgeous and sounding bright. She had to be if he had fallen for her. What she could not understand was how he had decided to marry her so soon. How long had they known each other? Why had he not talked about her before? Or _had he_, one of those times when she was tuning him out? Gosh… It was so annoying. She had to stop thinking about him. She had to think about her own future. That would not trouble her as Marshall's wedding did.


	3. Chapter 3

**Machinations **by Betty Bokor  
Mary/Marshall. Marshall surprises everyone with his new plans and Mary has to learn to live with his decisions.  
Spoilers: All episodes, including Second Season Finale.  
Disclaimer: The In Plain Sight original characters belong to USA Network and Universal Media Studios (UMS). This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

**Machinations**

******Chapter 3**

Tuesday was pure torture. It did not start well and it ended worse. Mary walked into the office as tired as she had left the day before, or perhaps more. Thinking about her own life had not helped her sleep and her mind had relentlessly gone back to imagining Marshall and his bride. Norah crying around four in the morning had not helped. Around then, she had begun wondering if her engagement to Raph had ever left Marshall sleepless. After careful consideration, she had concluded he had probably not lost one minute of sleep thinking of her and her former fiancé.

Marshall again came to work in a cheerful mood and suggested they had breakfast together before they started a series of visits to check on their witnesses. Mary reluctantly agreed, just because she had left the house running late and she had not had breakfast yet.

After ordering their food, she broke the uncomfortable silence at the table by asking Marshall the question that had haunted her the most the night before, the same one he had asked a long time before.

"So, are you happy?"

His response was immediate and enthusiastic. "Yep… Now I understand why you thought about marrying Raph," he added with a pleased smile. "Since we made the decision, everything has started to fall into place. I'm looking forward to coming home everyday and having someone waiting for me. I've spent too many years of my life on my own and it feels great to have Leslie to come home to."

"You haven't mentioned love, stud," she said almost condescendingly.

He looked perplexed. "Of course we love each other."

"You've never talked about Leslie before. I don't understand this kind of _sudden_ love," she said with an expressive gesture.

"I've known her for more than three years, but there were many things keeping us apart. However, we've been in touch all this time and, as soon as we saw each other last week, the chemistry came back immediately."

"In other words, you're not _crazily in love_, you have _chemistry_," Mary pointed out.

"Were you crazily in love with Raph?" he continued without waiting for her answer. "I don't think that's a requisite for a successful marriage. Furthermore," he said looking away as if he were organizing his memories, "I've witnessed in more than one occasion a marriage that started in passionate love and ended in bitter divorce."

She had no time to think of an appropriate comeback, because Marshall pointed out the need to start their visits. Nevertheless, she could not stop thinking that he seemed to be settling for Leslie because he had not found a woman he could fall crazily in love with. The idea worried her. That was what she had been doing with Raph.

In any case, the day was spent checking up on witnesses and doing paperwork and it would not have been such a bad day if Marshall had not called Leslie before leaving the office.

"I'll be there in a jiffy," he was saying.

Mary could not stop a mocking gesture.

"No, unless we get someone new, I'll make it on time tomorrow, too."

Mary paid attention and after a few seconds she realized Leslie had been informed about what Marshall's job was. She felt furious. There was clearly a double standard there.

"So," she confronted him as soon as he hung up the phone, "it was so wrong for me to tell Raph about what we do, but you tell your precious Leslie the first chance you get."

Marshall stared at her for a second before calmly answering. "I didn't need to tell her anything, she already knew what I do for a living."

"You told her before you were even engaged? It just came up as a heated utterance while in the throes of passion?"

He looked at her with something akin to pity and she felt incensed.

"She already knew because until a month ago, she worked in WitSec, too. I've worked with her before. I'm not betraying any secrets with her and we never talk about my witnesses or the ones she used to have."

Mary could not stop herself. "She must have betrayed something if they kicked her out of WitSec."

Marshall was starting to get mad. "She wasn't kicked out of anywhere. She didn't leave the Marshal's Service; she just left WitSec because she's a widow and she has a kid entering college and with the kind of pay we get here she couldn't make it. She was an outstanding inspector. Nobody wanted her to leave, but she needed a better position."

Mary was feeling somewhat ashamed, but she could not show that kind of weakness, so she changed the topic toward something else she could criticize. "She has a teenager? How old is she?" she asked with exaggerated surprise.

"She's thirty-nine. She just married right out of high school, that's all," he answered with more annoyance. "Besides, Thomas is a great kid and I'll be proud to be his stepfather."

"So, you're not only getting married, you're getting an instant family. I thought you were the kind of guy who liked to start his own," she said without even thinking if her statement made any sense.

Marshall's voice was louder when he replied. "You know what? We talked about that and Leslie is completely ready to have another child, and that is more to say than what you probably were willing to do for Raph," he spat before adding, "and, in spite of how edifying this conversation has been, I need to cut it short because _the woman I love_ is waiting for me."

His last words hurt her in unexpected ways and she could not articulate a response before he left the office with a slam of the door.

Mary sat at her desk overwhelmed by all the conflicting ideas in her mind. Anything she thought of as a fault of Leslie, Marshall saw as a virtue and, when considered from his perspective, they became Mary's faults.

Late in the evening she made her way home, surprised by the feeling that now that her family was finally out of her house, she wished there would be someone there to talk about Marshall.


	4. Chapter 4

**Machinations **by Betty Bokor  
Mary/Marshall. Marshall surprises everyone with his new plans and Mary has to learn to live with his decisions.  
Spoilers: All episodes, including Second Season Finale.  
Disclaimer: The In Plain Sight original characters belong to USA Network and Universal Media Studios (UMS). This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

**Machinations**

******Chapter 4**

Marshall arrived home and smelled something sweet coming from the oven. It had been a long time since anyone had baked anything for him and the sensation made him feel basically happy. This was something he would get used to very fast. It was true that it would take longer to quiet the feelings he still had for Mary, but he would get there sooner or later. Besides, Mary was really helping him in that respect.

The day he had fortuitously found out Mary was in Mexico with Faber, something had broken in their relationship and Marshall felt it could never be fixed. He had always admired Mary's independence, her fierceness, her courage, but he had never understood her need for quick physical fixes whenever she felt lonely, anguished, or in any other negative state. Nevertheless, he had respected her way of dealing with her problems.

That is, until Faber. He could not help but feel that she had betrayed herself, that she had settled for the lowest of her options. He almost felt as if he had somehow lost respect for her. For a long time, whenever he had looked at her, he could see Faber's sleazy hands on her shoulders while he whispered syrupy words to lure her into his bed. And she had fallen for it.

Things had not gotten much better after Faber. Then Norah had come to her life and Mary had decided to keep the little girl on her own. That was a decision Marshall respected, but still did not change the poor choices Mary made for her own love life. So, now, Marshall was moving on. He was leaving Mary and her needs behind. He would still be her friend, but he would not delay his life waiting for her to realize how much he loved her anymore.

She did not want someone who loved her or who understood her or knew how to deal with her every single day… She just wanted a cowboy for the night and he was not going to stoop that low.

He had come clean about his feelings for Mary with Leslie the night before and now he believed he had better chances of getting over his partner. When Leslie had asked how Mary had reacted to the news of his engagement, he had heard something else behind her question. She had conceded that she believed Mary could have feelings beyond friendship for him and he had rejected the notion vehemently, but he had felt obliged to confess his own feelings for her.

Leslie had taken it surprisingly well. She had explained she could understand it the same way Marshall understood the feelings she still had for her lost husband. They had bonded deeply over the impossibility of having their first choice for love and the prospects of new beginnings for both.

When they finally went to sleep, they were feeling happy and relieved.

Marshall had fallen asleep first, again, and Leslie had stayed awake longer, still trying to figure out if Mary would give him the chance David had given her. A chance at his own fairy tale.


	5. Chapter 5

**Machinations **by Betty Bokor  
Mary/Marshall. Marshall surprises everyone with his new plans and Mary has to learn to live with his decisions.  
Spoilers: All episodes, including Second Season Finale.  
Disclaimer: The In Plain Sight original characters belong to USA Network and Universal Media Studios (UMS). This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

**_A.N. _**_This is another of the stories I lost completely when I last moved, but got downloaded from backup. Unfortunately, I did not recover what I had not posted yet, so that is gone. I wrote a new ending before the series ends tonight. I am still hoping something like this would happen in the real series…_

_I really, really hated the end of the series. I think they should have left Maples there; the new writers ruined it. I guess we would have to keep writing stories that could fix that awful ending. Let me know what you think!_

**Machinations**

******Chapter 5**

As he drove back to the office, Marshall was still reeling with the news. He had left Leslie and Thomas at the airport and not looked back. He needed to go back to his routine, take care of his witnesses, do something that made him forget –at least for a minute– what had happened. It was not that he was not happy for Leslie and her son; it just was that merely two days before the wedding his world had turned upside down and he was having trouble staying upright. It would take a while. But, at least, he had done the right thing and supported his fiancée –_no_, not _fiancée_, not anymore… his _friend_– and he had done with love and understanding.

He walked into the office expecting to be the only one there at that hour, but he was disappointed to see that Mary was already there. He almost walked back out, but she saw him come in and he was doomed. He could not stay there long. He could not deal with both losses at the same time. With Leslie's support he had been working hard on learning how to be far from Mary since the very moment, a week ago, when Stan had announced that the office would be closed and all the marshals relocated. It had been a hard blow for all of them, but the idea of moving away from Mary had been the worst part for him. Even if she was just his friend, she was an integral part of his life, much more than a partner, and it was still very difficult to imagine how hard it would be for them to see each other again if they worked in different offices, in different states. The chances were slight.

"Hey, I was waiting for you. We need to talk."

"Is there a witness in trouble?" he asked, concerned.

"Nope. This is something more… personal."

He sighed, sat at his desk, and turned on his computer. "I'm afraid I don't have time for personal today. I know what you're going to say about what happened and, thanks, but you don't have to. I'm fine. I just need to get working here and everything will be okay."

Mary was puzzled. She had no idea what he was talking about. She had taken a weekend off, away from her precious Norah, because she needed to think. To think and to make some hard decisions. So she had begged Stan not to call her unless one of her witnesses was in serious trouble. Consequently, she had no clue what had happened during the weekend and she did not know why it could affect Marshall. But that did not really matter. What she had to say was more important and time was of the essence. The wedding was imminent and she had to say her part before it was too late.

She stood up and walked toward his desk. "I'm serious, Marshall, this can't wait."

He was not in the mood. He had his own problems; he had no desire or strength to deal with hers right then. He needed to heal himself before trying to help someone else. "Not now, Mar; I'm busy."

She was perplexed. "This isn't a joke; I'm serious. We need to talk… _now_."

The tone of her voice made him look up. No _doofus_, no _dimwit_, no mocking of any kind. She seemed determined and he worried there was something really wrong.

"Is Norah okay?"

She felt relieved. That was normal Marshall. "She's fine. She spent the weekend with Brandi and Jinx, but she's fine."

He was curious. "Where were you? You really left her with your mom and your sister?"

"I made Brandi take a breathalyzer test before I left, but, yes, Norah stayed with them."

"Wow! I'm impressed."

"Shut up, doofus."

Marshall relaxed. Nothing could be too wrong. "So, what do you need?"

"I need to talk to you, now, but not here."

"I have work to do, Mar. I still have to decide where I'm going-"

"This is more important; I told you."

She had just finished her sentence when Delia opened the office door. "Good morning," she said jovially, determined not to let the relocation ruin her life.

"I'm glad you're here," Mary said dryly. "Now we can leave. Come on, hurry," she added as she grabbed Marshall's jacket.

"What she meant is that she's happy you're here to take care of the office because we need to step out for a moment," Marshall said in a conciliatory tone.

"I get it," Delia answered with the same smile. "Go ahead."

Marshall nodded a thank you and followed Mary who was already going through the door.

"Where to?" he asked as she kept walking in silence.

"The terrace," she answered as she entered the elevator.

"Okay…"

A few seconds later they were on the unfrequented terrace of the old building.

"Alright, we're here. What's so important that it can't wait?"

She took a deep breath, looked him in the eyes, and said, "You can't marry Leslie."

It did not surprise him a bit. He was about to say something like "_I know_," when it dawned on him that that was such an obvious reality now that she could not be talking about what had happened during the weekend. Maybe she did not know about it. Perhaps, wherever she had been, the news had not gotten to her.

He changed his answer. "What?"

She seemed frustrated. "I said it. You can't marry her."

"And why not?" he tried, hoping to find out what she was talking about.

"She's not right for you."

"Really? Shouldn't you have told me this... oh, I don't know… a week ago or earlier? Don't you think it's a little too late for that?"

"You're not married yet. It's not too late."

He felt a little like smiling, but he kept serious. "Listen, Mar. You can't drop something like this on me and just say that she's not right for me. I need more than that."

"Fine. What about _she won't make you happy_?"

"Why wouldn't she? She's made me happy up until now. Why would that change?"

"Now you're still surrounded by friends, in a place where you have _support_. When we all move away you'll lose all that and… she won't be enough."

"Seriously, Mar? That's your argument?"

She used a gesture to express she was sure.

"Well, I don't agree with that and, if that's all you got, we're done here." He turned and started walking toward the elevator doors.

"Wait!" she stopped him full of frustration.

"What now?"

"There's more…" She looked down, trying to decide how to word her feelings.

He was intrigued. He turned back toward her, but he did not approach her. "What?"

"I've been thinking… and…" she looked up, unsure of how to say it, "and it occurred to me that you don't really love her."

"Why would that _occur_ to you?" he asked with heavy sarcasm.

"It seems to me that you… you're in love with someone else… That you've been in love with someone else for a while." There. She had said it. Now, she waited for his response.

He looked at her with wide eyes for a few seconds. "It seems to you…"

She nodded emphatically.

"You think I'm in love with someone else?"

"Well… Yes. You see, it was –technically– not _my_ idea, but now that I've thought about it, I think she's right."

"Who's right?"

"Delia."

"What did Delia say?"

"She just mentioned, in passing, that you might be in love but refused to acknowledge it."

"_I _refuse to acknowledge it?" he asked with disbelief.

She gestured that was an obvious conclusion.

"Well, for your information, I have acknowledged my feelings a long time ago. I know exactly how I feel and for whom I feel what and, at this point, I've only done whatever I thought it was better for all involved, including me."

She was stunned. "So, you _do admit_ that you love someone else other than Leslie?"

"So what? It's not like it changes anything. I loved Leslie in a different way and she knew exactly what she was getting into when she asked me to marry her."

"_She_ asked _you_?" She backed up a little. "You _loved_ her?"

He sighed loudly and got closer to her. He put his hands on her arms and made her look in his eyes. "What do you want from me, Mar? What do you _really_ want?"

She did not back down. "I want you to tell me the truth. I'm your friend. I used to be your best friend, your only friend. Now that you have Leslie, I feel left out. Just tell me the truth."

He looked at her for a short while. He had nothing to lose if he told her the truth. And nothing to gain. They would be in different parts of the country soon and all this would be behind.

He kept his hands on her arms and looked straight at her. "I love you." He waited for a few more seconds because she was not showing any reaction to his words. "I've been in love with you for a long time. I knew it since the beginning and I've done my best not to let my feelings interfere with your life." He took his hands off her arms and she walked back with an expression of disbelief.

More like denial.

He felt relieved. "There. You have the truth. Now, you can forget about it and move on. I'll make sure I get assigned somewhere far from you so that it doesn't get all awkward between us. After a while it will get better and we can try and reconnect again. You _are _my friend and I'd like to think that sometime in the future we can still be friends."

She was still too stunned to say anything.

"Besides, I'm not going to marry Leslie."

She looked at him, even more bewildered.

"Not because I don't love her enough or because we couldn't have been happy," he continued, "but because her husband was found alive last Saturday and she's on her way to meet him in Germany… I guess it wasn't meant to be."

She managed to find her voice. "Marshall," she started but he stopped her.

"No. You don't have to say anything. Just take your time. I'm okay… and I'll go back to the office so that you can stay here as long as you need it." He got closer, gave her a brief kiss on the forehead, and walked away silently.

Mary sat on the floor because her legs felt ready to give up. She had not seen it coming. Everything she had thought of and planned during the weekend had backfired. That was not how she had imagined the conversation would go. She was ready to confess, not to hear his confession. She had thrown Delia's comment just to procrastinate, to avoid telling her truth just yet. And Delia had been right. How could she have missed it? She could read people better than anyone else and she had missed one of the most important clues of her life… And she seemed to be the only one who had missed the signs. Stan's face after Delia's remark had been telling; he agreed with her. Even Charlie had nodded as if he knew what they were talking about… How was she going to fix this?

* * *

Marshall went back to the office with a mix of relief and sadness. It was done. Now he could concentrate on the future. He had to apply for a new position and there were many possibilities. The only thing he knew for certain was that wanted to stay in WitSec. The rest would slowly fall into place and someday he would feel at home somewhere else as he had felt in Albuquerque.

Now and then for the next half hour he worried about Mary, but every time he concluded that she was strong enough to deal with the matter on her own. Maybe she felt sorry for him and she did not want to face him yet, but that was fine, too.

He finished some paperwork and walked to Stan's office. They had not had a chance to talk since he had called him during the weekend to give him the news about Leslie's husband. He definitely had more news.

They had been there for only a few minutes when Mary came in through the front door. She walked resolutely towards her desk, searched for something in a drawer, and started writing something on a piece of paper.

Marshall, who had turned to look at her following Stan's signal, turned back to his boss and tried to continue their conversation. He had not said two words when Mary whistled loudly.

"Hey, people, a minute of your attention!" She yelled before climbing onto a chair.

Since the preceding week had been such an eventful one, everyone in the office slowly approached her, half fearing what she had to say, half hoping for good news.

Stan and Marshall joined them a few seconds later.

"Dear fellow marshals," she started with obvious sarcasm. "Though I obviously miss the times when we were just the three of us here" she said while she pointed to her boss and her partner with a movement of her head, "and though I know we haven't shared this office for too long and I still don't remember half of your names, you're still here and I'd like you all to be part of what is about to happen today."

Marshall felt some kind of cold sensation running up his spine and he suddenly feared what was coming. He looked at Stan and guessed he was not feeling better.

Everybody else remained quiet, expecting Mary's next words.

"It seems that many of you have been privy to some information that affected me _particularly_ and that, nevertheless, all those who knew opted for keeping this knowledge from me," she looked pointedly at Delia, then Charlie, and finally Stan.

Marshall closed his eyes, almost certain that what was about to happen would not make life easy for him.

"It looks like many of you knew that the doofus here, my trusted partner, _my friend_," she seemed to savor the word, "dear marshal Marshall Mann… has been in love with me for the longest time… Right, Marshall?" She looked straight at him.

He barely shook his head in disbelief and then started turning to walk away from her.

It was painful; he had not expected something like that.

"Mary," Stan tried while the rest of the people seemed unsure of what to do.

"Oh. No, you don't get to walk away now," Mary continued without paying attention to Stan. "You have to listen until the end."

Clearly upset, Marshall walked toward his desk without acknowledging her and began picking up papers.

"You _have to_ listen," she insisted, "because it's not fair that you're the only one who gets to keep secrets around here."

Marshall could not see the logic of that. He stopped what he was doing to turn and look at her defiantly.

"Better," she said, "that's the Marshall I know… So, now, going back to this business of secrets, I know another one that needs to be shared."

Marshall looked at her and dryly asked, "And what would that be?"

Stan lowered his head and sighed.

Mary looked around, seemingly trying to gather strength to go on. "Okay, I'll tell you." She got down from the chair and started walking towards him. When she was close to him, she stopped and said, loud enough for everybody to hear, "I love you, too… and, if you're still in the mood to get married, I wouldn't mind-" she hesitated and changed her mind, "it'd be an honor to be your wife."

Stan nervously scratched his head. If he had not seen that one coming, neither had Marshall. What was his friend going to do? He had a chance to embarrass Mary as much as she had embarrassed him, but that was not his style. However… he had been pretty angry a minute ago.

Marshall looked at her intensely, without one blink. A second later, he crossed the space between them in two strides and kissed her without a word.

The crowd whistled, applauded, cheered, and began dispersing as Delia and Stan approached the couple.

"I guess I should start looking for an office in need of two WitSec inspectors," Stan said, hoping the kiss would end soon and he would feel less awkward.

Marshall let Mary go and genuinely smiled for the first time in a long while. "That sounds good, Stan," he said before his boss approached him and hugged him tightly.

"What about you take the rest of the day off? Delia and I can take care of your stuff for a couple of days." He hugged Mary and looked at both his marshals waiting for an answer.

"If Mary was serious about that marriage stuff, maybe we'll go ahead and do it," Marshall said with a mix of hope and giddiness.

"Dead serious, dimwit. You're not going anywhere."

Marshall smiled again and put his arm on her shoulders. "Give us a couple of hours; we'll let you know."

They swiftly picked up their belongings and got out of the office.

"Follow me home?" He asked shyly.

She smiled and agreed.

A short while later, he opened the door to his old house, where he had barely been since he had started dating Leslie, and let Mary in. They had not walked more than a few steps in,when she grabbed him by the neck and pulled him down for a kiss. A second later, she was pulling his shirt out of his trousers.

Marshall stopped her and grabbed her hands. "Wait, wait, wait. What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"I thought we were going to talk."

"Haven't we talked enough for a day?"

He smiled. "Seriously, we need to talk."

"I'll make you a deal. We spent the rest of the morning here and then we go to my house and we talk about tomorrow and all that."

"You don't mind talking in front of your family?"

"I'll just have to listen to Brandi say that she was right all along, but I can deal with that. They'll be happy with one of my decisions for a change."

"Seriously?"

"Do you have any doubts? They both love you. Even Principal Stuber likes you."

Marshall smiled. It was hard not to do it. A couple of days prior all his hopes for happiness had been dashed with the return of Leslie's husband. Not that he was not happy that he had returned; it just hurt what he had lost with her gain. Now, everything had fallen into place.

"So, are we making out or what?" Mary asked as she tried to grab his shirt again.

"What's the hurry?"

"I don't know you, but I've been imagining this for a while… It's time to stop imagining and test reality."

"Really? How long a while?"

"You _are_ a doofus!" she spat playfully.

He waited for an answer.

"Hmm… Since around the time you got engaged. It just happened. I couldn't help it. What about you? Have you ever… fantasized?"

"I'll plead the fifth to that."

"That's not fair."

"I'll take you to my room if you let it go. Maybe I can show you…"

Before he could finish, she had grabbed his hand and was walking toward the bedroom. "Fine. Enough chit-chat for now."

Marshall closed the door of his bedroom behind him. They would fix the rest later. Now it was the time to make dreams come true.

**_A.N. _**_If you enjoyed this story at all, please take the time and review. Thanks_


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